It's beeen stated that 80k need to be solf the first MY for GM to start seeing profit. In addition to already being obscenely late to the dance I believe that may be a reason for the extended first MY.

They need to sell 80,000 cars and hope to sell 100,000+ according to Chevy's statements then? This sounds pretty optimistic considering the last year of production they sold 42,000.

If I remember correctly, the GTO didn't even sell that many cars combined for the 2004-06 models! And that was a great car, albeit very homely...